Paula and her boss Sue were driving each other nuts. (As their coach I got to see it up close.) Paula needed to hire more staff. Her “reasonable” proposal got “shot down” by Sue, who sent it back with a…
Blog Archives
Best Practices for Meetings – 5 Structural Elements
Most meetings suck. Yours can suck way less. Here are 5 structural elements that will make your meetings fast, fascinating, and effective — and how to implement each one.
Profitable Transitions – with Jim Grew
Transitions are dangerous times for any business – not just when a firm is bought or sold, or when there’s a new CEO – and they are also times of tremendous opportunity. One person who excels at turning transitions into…
Nice Teams Finish Last
Think your team is great because you all get along so well? It could be a sign your team is under-performing.As Brian Cole Miller describes in his new book Nice Teams Finish Last, niceness is often a cover for fear of straight talk, for low trust…
Virtual Teams with Claire Sookman and Tom Schulte
How can you create more effective virtual teams? I asked Claire Sookman of Virtual Team Builders, who has been studying and teaching virtual teams for ten years, and Tom Schulte of Recalibrate Professional Development, and the creator o…
How the CEO can Create an Even More Engaging Work Environment
How can CEOs create an even more engaging work environment? I asked David Witt, Program Director at The Ken Blanchard Companies.The Blanchard folks have done an enormous amount of research on this topic of workplace engagement. They’ve found some…
The Thrust of Two Widows: How to Make Your Conflicts Constructive
In fencing, there is a maneuver called “the thrust of two widows” — where the fencers both lunge, neither blocks, and they each succeed in killing the other one. It’s generally considered something of a failure. Fencing students are warned against it…
Creating a Culture of Excellence – Entrepreneur Magazine
Good article in Entrepreneur Magazine summarizing the steps to create a culture of excellence.Summary:Create a master document to spell out exactly what excellence means.Survey your customers. Get outside help. Talk with the neighbors. S…
Deeper on Teams
We dive deeper on teamwork and team building with two returning experts: John Bender and Peter Bye. John was senior director of merger integration for HP’s $19.5 billion acquisition of Compaq. Peter was Corporate Diversity Director at AT&T. They di…
John Bender on Building Virtual Teams
For our recent interview, John Bender shared this outline of his thinking on the topic of virtual teams, team building and trust building. I share it here in its entirety (with some formatting tweaks) because it is an outstanding, compact summati…
Storytelling Redux with Seth Kahan
Following up on our recent interview of four experts on business storytelling, we drill down into the how-tos of good storytelling, including when to use which type of story. My returning guest is Seth Kahan of visionaryleadership.com, who will also di…
- Why the Boss is Always Wrong Tue 07-May-2013
- On being Firm Thu 18-Apr-2013
- Six Steps to Solving a Problem Mon 15-Apr-2013
- The Changing Face of Luxury Sun 07-Apr-2013
- How to Harness Visual Leadership Sun 31-Mar-2013
- Stop Putting People First – Put Profit First Wed 27-Mar-2013
- Why your Employee is Always Right Tue 19-Mar-2013
- When is Anger Okay in the Work Place? Thu 14-Mar-2013
- Keep a Thin Skin Wed 27-Feb-2013
- Strategic Execution – Outside the Core Mon 18-Feb-2013